uncle wrote:

>Do companies hire people for development or conceptualization of story these days without "game industry" experience?

Wrong question. Of course people with no industry experience get hired into the industry - in entry-level jobs, usually. Care to rephrase the question?

>what sort of position should one seek out in order to become an in-house writer in the future?

Many companies do not have any in-house writer positions. Read FAQ 32 on my site - http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson32.htm.

>helping create the stories for games seems like a good spot to start, if it's even a realistic niche in the game job market.

It's not a realistic target. You have to earn your writing stripes elsewhere.

It sort of hijacked this thread, about the writing. However, many of the people I've seen who have written for the online games (this is the research I have done, not on the single-person games) got their start writing for pen and paper RPGs and writing novels or comic books. Don't reply "where do I find the pen and paper places to hire me?" because that can be found with some research and Googling.